The Italian press reported that France’s Europe En Marche was reaching out to the 5 Star Movement, but this was then clearly refuted by En Marche. EURACTIV.fr reports.

According to an article published by the Italian right-wing daily Il Foglio, the 5 Star Movement planned to get closer to En Marche’s European political group. Another daily, Corriere della Serra, then wrote that Emmanuel Macron’s group would open its door to Alexis Tsipras’ Syriza party and Yanis Varoufakis’ Diem.

The former European Commissioner, Emma Bonino, returns to the Italian political scene with the upcoming general election with the +Europa coalition, and the aim of removing “the danger” of the far right and the Five Star Movement. EURACTIV’s partner Euroefe reports.

En Marche rebutted those claims in a statement: “The progressive values of openness and humanism that are the backbone of Europe En Marche are not compatible with the demagogic, populist and openly Eurosceptic positions of the 5 Star Movement”.

“Europe En Marche calls on the media that propagate such erroneous information to verify their sources so as not to unnecessarily spread fake news.”

To tackle fake news ahead of the 2019 European elections, the European Parliament will launch “a not neutral” information campaign, according to the institution’s spokesman and media director, Jaume Duch. EURACTIV’s partner Euroefe reports.

The statement clearly pleased the former Italian Minister of European Affairs, Sandro Gozi.

The 5-star movement is known for being very heterogeneous, bringing together ecologists, libertarians and radical populists. It had already approached all kinds of European political groups such as the Greens and ALDE but since 2014 it has sided with the British Eurosceptics of UKIP in the group Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy.